Fuelled by a narrow defeat in the preceding round of the Sodi World Series (SWS) Sprint Series, Saeed Al Mehairi bounced back to take a commanding SWS Senior Cup win at the Dubai Kartdrome on Monday night.
With a best lap time of 1:11.188, Rami Azzam opened the contest as the top qualifier, 0.127 seconds ahead of Al Mehairi and 0.193 seconds ahead of Ahmed Al Hammadi in third position.
The three drivers began Race One fighting for the lead with Al Hammadi dropping back to sixth position after spinning out. The other two karts carried on and Al Mehairi took control of the race and held on for the win. Azzam harassed the Emirati on every turn but was still 0.598 seconds behind at the finish line.
“Things happen sometimes in a race but I’m glad that everyone is happy now,” said Al Mahairi. “Even after the race they were shaking hands which is really good.”
Newcomer Pierre Oliver Chevalier made an instant impact in the Masters category, taking top honours over veteran Heiki Eelma in second place. Adrian Jones secured third.
SWS JUNIOR CUP
A dominant double win for Kyle Kumaran fuelled his has grand ambitions to compete in the next SWS World Finals.
His two rivals managed to get ahead of him in qualifying, with Ahad Minhas topping the timing screens with a best lap time of 1:21.431, which was 0.307 seconds better than Hugo Gid and 0.318 seconds better than Kumaran.
In the opening lap of Race One, Minhas and Gid dropped back and Kumaran got away clean. Kayne Cherian came up from fourth and Alexander Renner all the way from sixth on the grid to battle it out up front with Kumaran.
The three drivers scrapped the entire race, with Renner and Kumaranemerging side by side in the last corner of the last lap. Kumaran nosed ahead for the win, just 0.158 seconds ahead of Renner, with Cherian claiming third.
Kumaran took the winning momentum into Race Two, securing the lead and fighting off challenges from Patrick Debattista and Gid. He held on for victory, crossing the finish line 0.786 seconds ahead of Debattista, with Gid another 0.724 seconds behind in third place.
“The competition was pretty stiff; I was lucky to get up front so quickly,” said Kumaran.